That’s because it has finally cracked the requirements of an action movie. Non-stop action, leavened by glamorous leads, topped by the guy who can save the world, a high-octane set piece and an emo line at a time. But does that all save the movie?

The plot involves a slew of spies, sardonic RAW chiefs (Ashutosh Rana), evil ISI generals and gun-toting terrorists inhabiting global hotspots. Pakistan is apparently back eyeing Kashmir. One of India’s own, Jim (John Abraham) has gone rogue. Gorgeous ISI agent Rubina (Deepika Padukone), A deadly virus, much more dangerous than Covid 19, is being cooked up in top-secret labs. There’s clear danger but breathe easy, because India’s best and bravest, Pathaan (Shah Rukh Khan) is at hand.

It’s very easy to stifle a yawn when you’re watching this almost 3 hours long movie because of repetitive fight scenes and lack of thrill in the story. You will see Pathaan and Jim fighting everywhere including streets of Dubai, the air. skimming over ice-floes and under icy water, chasing each other down twisty roads. There’s some amount of roll-your-eyes silliness, par for the course for this kind of flick. Plus, the third person mention of ‘Pathaan’ was quite tiresome.

There really is nothing in it that we haven’t seen before (YRF songs on beaches should rightfully be a separate Bollywood sub-genre) but there’s no denying that Pathaan and Rubina swaying and narrowing their eyes at each other on a Spanish beach, is something audience enjoyed a lot. John Abraham is nothing but a treat for the eyes and we’re seriously worried why nobody is talking about him? His portrayal of Jim is breathe of fresh air in a boring 3 hours long movie.

Deepika looks gorgeous as Rubina but all the songs including the famous controversial song “Besharam Rang” were useless in the movie and deepika’s dressing in the song or in the movie did not make any sense. She could’ve looked like an ISI agent with appropriate clothing as well and we seriously have no idea why they added that element as superstars like Deepika Podukone and Shah Rukh Khan don’t need to show their abs and body parts in seductive context to make a movie superhit. (We remember Chennai Express and Om Shanti Om)

But still Pathaan’ manages multiple feats in Shah Rukh Khan’s come-back after a clutch of medium-bad to terrible films and makes it a one time watch for everyone. People who love Shah Rukh Khan will enjoy the movie as it has references of so many other movies and at the end Shah Rukh Khan’s persona is enough to make you fall in love with the vibe of the movie but when it comes to the story line, the movie is struggling.